8/11/2014

My viewers' favourite year and what it can tell us about them

Approximately 2 years ago I finished my Top 20 countdown video goal of listing all years between 1980 and 2009. Since then I've watched the comments come in, some praise, some hate. But recently I have been wondering if some people enjoy a specific year more than another and why.

From sharing the videos and playlist with friends and acquaintances I've learned that there are three main reasons which motivate people to watch one of my videos:

  • Curiosity of the top 20 of their birthyear
  • Seeking nostalgia for a year in which they were kids or teenagers
  • Sheer curiosity for the tracks in a random year
In my experience, the first two motivations are the most common as they relate with people at a more personal and intimate level, especially seeking nostalgia or memories from a certain year. After all, some people might find their top 20 of their birthyear curious enough to warrant a view but might not relate to the songs as they had literally just been born then.

By finding out which ones of my videos have the most views, and referencing them with these motivations, I could theoretically predict my main audience's birthyear and childhood/teenage years.

I decided to log-in my youtube account, gather the number of views for each year, fill an excel sheet and then graph them for a quick visualization:


One of the first apparent things is just how much popular the year 2005 is compared to all the others. This would indicate that people relate to it much more than all the other videos. Perhaps this is the year when most of my viewers were kids/teenagers.

The four most viewed videos after 2005 are 1991, 1987, 1995 and 1997. This could indicate that those four years are birthyears of my audience, for example.

If these premises were true, then that would mean my main audience would be between 17 and 27 years old, which would make them about 8 to 18 years old during 2005. This would make sense as they would be kids/teenagers. 

I decided to look into the actual YouTube analytics for my playlist and see how close/far-off I was with my crude prediction:


It turns out I was quite close in my prediction. It was so accurate that it even surprised me!

I guess there's not many conclusions that can be drawn from this (other than I have too much time in my hands to be doing these posts). At heart, it just shows how music is so relevant to people's lives, and how we cannot escape the years and generation we were born into, it is a part of us and it will follow us everywhere. It is part of our identity and there is no point escaping it just because some music we don't like was in the top or because we think mainstream music nowadays might not be as good as before. 

Eventually we will all become nostalgic with today's mainstream music, just as we are now with the music that played when we were kids. 

8/10/2014

My new favourite YouTube channel


My new favourite youtube channel: shows the evolution of some sub-genres of electronic music. For those bassheads out there, here's an example:




The U.S.A. Army loves my video

So apparently the U.S.A. army sent me an e-mail a while ago requesting if they could use my video for some event. I said sure but I was (and still am) quite surprised that they requested it, considering how I have a video about marijuana myths on my youtube channel...

Even so, here is part of the e-mail so you can see how even the government enjoys my futuristic videos:

Good afternoon,
I am the corporate communications officer for the United States Army Recruiting Command. I am creating a briefing to our recruiting commanders, on behalf of my commanding general. The goal is to show how the world is changing as well as the cultural gaps between the older leaders and the youth that we connect with on a daily basis.

I am contacting you in hopes of acquiring permission to download and use your "Welcome to the 2020s (Future Timeline Events 2020-2029)" video that you published on YouTube on 2 September 2011.

Your video, along with a couple others from other sources are exactly what we would like to show to assist in conveying our commander's intent. Would it be possible to obtain permission and access to download it for a one time use at our Annual Leader's Conference?

Thank you in advance for your consideration in this matter.


And here is the video he wanted, if you'd like to rewatch it!


Ideas for future content


Unfortunately I haven't put up much videos as I've been busy with university. I am still interested in doing some more and better videos about my "Visit a year for 6 minutes" playlist (both pre-1980 and after 2009) as well as some more future videos (2040s and maybe 2050s).

For now, I have been very grateful of the views I have been receiving in my channel! It's mind-blowing to see some of my videos reach 200k views! Thank you all for the support, and I hope that this blog continues to serve you as a knowledge base where I keep the tracklists I use for some of my videos.

Dubstep History Megamix

Uploaded this a while ago but forgot to share it in the blog. This was a mix up on youtube a while ago by skinsvideos21 until I noticed it had been removed. Luckily I had downloaded the mix itself.

I felt it was a very interesting mix and historically important one, so here it is again for all of you to enjoy. 


DL: http://www.mediafire.com/?2esn8al2lwbc2y5

*TRACKLIST*
1994
Acen - Close Your Eyes
1997
Double 99 - R.I.P. the Groove
Gunman - 187 Lockdown
1999
Zed Bias - Neighbourhood (El-B remix)
2000
Artful Dodger ft. Craig David - Rewind
Horsepower Productions - When You Hold Me
2002
Artwork - Red
El-B ft. Juiceman - Buck n' Bury
2003
Benga & Skream - The Judgement
2004
Digital Mystikz & Loefah - Horror Show
2006
Kode9 - Nine Samurai
Skream - Midnight Request Line
2007
Appleblim - Vansan
Boxcutter - Chiral
Distance - My Demons
Mala - Alicia
Loefah - Disko Rekah
Rusko - Cockney Thug
2008
Benga ft. Coki - Night
Chase and Status - Eastern Jam
Plastician - Japan
Ramadanman - Blimey
Shackleton - The Branch is Weak
Zomby - Aquafresh
2562 - Techno Dread
2009
Benga - Man on a Mission
Freeland - Do You (Joker remix)
Jazzsteppa - Big Swing Sound
Kode9 - Black Sun
King Midas Sound - Waiting For You
Mala - Level Nine
Mstrkrft ft. John Legend - Heartbreaker (12th Planet remix)
Stagga ft. Skamma - Sick as Sin
The Prodigy - Take Me to the Hospital (Rusko remix)
Excision & Datsik - Boom
2010
Cookie Monsta - Ginger Pubes
Pendulum - Set Me on Fire
Feed Me ft. Kill the Noise - Muscle Rollers
Mount Kimbie - Would Know
James Blake - I Only Know (What I Know Now)
Skream ft. Sam Frank - Where You Should Be
2011
James Blake - Limit to Your Love
SBTRKT - Wildfire
Silkie - Float
Benga - Smack Your Bitch Up
Benny Benassi ft. Gary Go - Cinema (Skrillex remix)
Korn ft. Skrillex - Get Up!
HECQ - Nihilum
Liquid Stranger - Bombaclaad Star (sped up version super bouncy mama mama)
2562 - Acuatic Family Affair
Ott - Owl Stretching Time

Image by reddit user u/stupiditykills


9/30/2012

Welcome to the 2030s

Following the previous 2010s and 2020s videos, here is a look at the next decade, the 2030s!

1/08/2012

Twitter Account

After some months of inactivity, here is the latest project, this time more directed towards the future in general:

https://twitter.com/#!/futurenewsbot

This is a twitter account with the intention of simulating that somehow some scientists managed to create a bot so powerful that it can predict news headlines.

I'll mainly be focusing on the social implications of future technology, plus some general predictions, but contrary to my futuristic videos, this twitter contains speculative information not based on future timeline's website.